The Italian Digital Classroom: Italian Culture and Literature Through Digital Tools and Social Media
The Italian Digital Classroom: Italian Culture and Literature through Digital Tools and Social Media 1. Using Video Games to Teach Italian Language and Culture: Useful, Effective, Feasible? Video games are a highly relevant part of life for our student population. According to the Pew Research Center (PRC, 2015), half of American adults play videogames, and 70% of college students play video games “at least once in a while” (Weaver).1 Some of the current commercial console and PC video games (some of which are also available on Mac, Android, and iOS) are digital, multi-media realia that can be used to enhance language acquisition both in and outside the classroom. The advantages of realia as a whole have already been extensively explored from a theoretical standpoint (Spurr; Dlaska). The advantages include development of specific personal interests in exploring, and therefore acquiring the foreign or second (F/L2) language and culture within a context. The ultimate goal of using realia is to turn students into life-long learners of the target language and culture. According to CALL research, digital realia, given their nature as multimedia, easily-accessible, persistent cultural artifacts, are particularly advantageous in reaching that goal (Smith). Compared to other digital realia, some specific video games add additional opportunities for language exploration. All such games, while similar in nature to movies (providing exposure to listening comprehension in the spoken dialogues and reading comprehension in the subtitles) also involve important additional features such as: writing and even speaking with other online users in the target language; direct interaction and agency, which improve learning skills (Deters et al.; Mitchell and Savill- Smith; Gee, What Video Games and “Good Video Games”); and critical thinking and problem-solving, which can be applied to physical group interaction in the classroom.
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